


Christmas Together

by helsinkibaby



Series: Together [3]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 13:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: “It’s Christmas Eve. That means I get to open one present.”





	Christmas Together

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas Ellick fandom!

“I think they’re finally asleep.” 

Nick says the words with no small amount of relief and Ellie grins as she leans back on the couch, watching him as he closes the living door firmly behind him, resting against it for a moment as if he’s expecting their girls to come charging through it at any moment. Which, to be honest, wouldn’t surprise Ellie one bit. 

“They’re excited,” she says and Nick actually rolls his eyes. 

“Believe me, I know,” he groans. He crosses the room to drop down beside her, rests his head on the back of the couch and looks up at the ceiling. “They’re going to wake us up at the crack of dawn too, aren’t they?” 

There’s no point even trying to deny it. “Well, it was your idea for the two of them to have a sleepover on Christmas Eve,” she reminds him. “That does mean you’ll have two excited eight year olds instead of one.” 

Nick tilts his head like he’s considering it. “If that’s the price I have to pay to wake up with you on Christmas morning, it’s worth it.” He sounds so sincere, the smile on his lips reflected in his eyes, that Ellie can do nothing but lean forward and kiss him. 

Just as things are starting to get interesting - Ellie lying back on the couch, Nick on top of her, her hands working under his shirt - he’s the one who pulls away. It’s rather uncharacteristic of him and Ellie blinks in surprise. He must recognise that because he smiles somewhat sheepishly, brushes a kiss across her forehead. 

“So it’s Christmas Eve,” he says, getting up and going to the Christmas tree in the corner, reaching around to the back of the pile of gifts. “And I have a gift I want you to open. Not in front of the girls.” 

Ellie can’t help herself; she bursts out laughing. It’s not the reaction Nick was expecting, she can tell by how taken aback he looks, and she hastens to explain herself. “I’m sorry... it’s just when I imagined you talking about unwrapping presents on Christmas Eve, it was in a totally different context.” 

It takes Nick a second but she sees the realisation dawn in his eyes, sees them move purposefully up and down her body as he takes in what she’s wearing. They’d had a Christmas Eve dinner with his sister and her family and Ellie hadn’t wanted to be overly dressed up so she’d settled on a red, long sleeved wrap dress that fell to just below her knees. It wasn’t new, she’d actually worn it on a date with Nick a couple of months ago, which is how he knew that with one flick of his wrist, the whole thing untied completely, exposing her to his gaze. He hadn’t commented on it one way or another but she’d seen his eyes darken when he’d picked her and Jess up, and she sees the same thing happen again now. 

He doesn’t even know about the brand new underwear set she’s wearing. That’s a present for them both. 

“Stop trying to distract me,” he says with a smile and she laughs again. “Besides, didn’t your mom ever teach you it’s better to give than to receive?” 

There are far too many comments Ellie could make about that and she presses her lips firmly shut and declines to make them. 

“Anyway.” Nick firmly changes the subject. “I wanted to give you this... and I didn’t want the girls to see it in case you think it’s too soon or too much or whatever...” Ellie feels her mouth go dry at the word but one glance at the box Nick is holding tells her he’s not going to present her with a ring. It’s a little too big, a little too flat for that. “But I wanted you to have this.” 

Carefully, her fingers shaking, Ellie unwraps the gift, the plain back box underneath giving her no clues as to its contents. When she pulls off the lid, a giggle escapes her. A keychain nestles on a bed of black foam, a tiny silver photo frame with a picture of Mila and Jess inside. It was taken at the daddy daughter dance that Nick had taken her to, just before they’d started dating, both girls all dressed up and grinning excitedly. Ellie lifts it up to take a better look and as she does, she realises that it isn’t just a keychain. 

There’s a key attached. 

Ellie’s head snaps up to look at him and she knows her eyes are wide. Nick, on the other hand, is completely calm. “I know this probably seems sudden,” he begins, “but I’ve been thinking about it for a while now... Ellie, I love having you here. Waking up with you in the morning, coming home to you at night, sitting here with you when the girls are asleep... the nights you go back to your own place, I hate it. It’s like I’m counting the hours until I get to see you again. And Mila loves having you and Jess here too. We both do.” 

There’s a lump in Ellie’s throat and she finds herself trying very hard not to cry. “We love it too,” she manages to whisper. 

“So you’ll think about it?” Nick’s hand closes over hers. “We can decorate the guest room whatever way Jess wants... I thought about putting her in with Mila permanently, then I realised they’d never sleep. Or we can go out looking for somewhere new, somewhere completely ours, whatever you want...”

He stops talking then because she kisses him. “Yes,” she says when she pulls away. 

He doesn’t understand what she means because he frowns. “Yes, as in...”

“All of it. The four of us, as a family. Here, somewhere else, I don’t care.” It’s an unusual statement from a woman who measures everything in her life carefully, analyses every little decision. But she means it with her whole heart and soul, doesn’t even have to think about it. 

The smile that breaks over Nick’s face, the sheer joy behind it, is more proof, if she needed it, that she’s done the right thing. 

His kiss - fierce and passionate - is just the icing on the cake. 

Once again, he’s the first to pull away. Once again, he’s smiling. “Now we’ve got that settled,” he says, his grin turning devilish as his hand drifts to the tie of her dress, “it’s Christmas Eve. That means I get to open one gift.” 

His hand stays still on the tie, waiting for her permission to pull it loose. She doesn’t waste any time in nodding and his eyes go wide when the dress falls open and he sees what she’s wearing underneath. “Happy Christmas, Nick,” Ellie murmurs as she winds her arms around his neck and pulls him close and she feels as well as hears the smile in his reply. 

“It certainly is.”


End file.
